Noh Seon-yeong Finishes 14th in 1,500-m Speed Skating

Noh Seon-yeong waits for her time after finishing the women’s 1,500-m speed skating race in Gangneung, Gangwon Province on Monday. /Yonhap

Speed skater Noh Seon-yeong finished 14th in the women's 1,500-m event with a time of 1:58.75 at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang on Monday. It was her best record in four Olympic appearances.

Noh is the older sister of former national short track speed skater Noh Jin-kyu, who died of osteosarcoma in 2016. She thought of retiring after the Sochi Olympics but decided to participate in this year's Olympics for her brother, who failed to realize his dream of skating at the Olympics.

"I have no regrets as I did my best. My brother should be satisfied," she said after the race.

Noh had a troubled route to Pyeongchang. Initially she was not qualified for the individual race but was on the national team as a member of the women's team pursuit. But the Korea Skating Union belatedly found out that all skaters in the team event must also qualify for an individual race and had to remove Noh from the national team.

In a later development, two Russian skaters failed to make the International Olympic Committee's list of Russian athletes over the country's state-sponsored doping scandal, and Noh, who was the second reserve, was able to move up.

Meanwhile, German-born luger Aileen Frisch, who obtained Korean citizenship to participate in the Olympics, finished seventh among 30 lugers with an overall time of 1:32.806 in the first and second runs of the women's singles event. The final rankings will be determined after the third and fourth runs on Tuesday.

Frisch initially announced her retirement in 2015 but became a naturalized Korean in 2016 at the Korea Luge Federation's suggestion.